In the Pelion region of Greece, fishermen in the fifteenth century would
give up their gardens and hunting and move their families to the streets of the
local harbor for the fishing season. In Crete, men routinely joined Turkish
ships even a century before Crete fell into Turkish hands. Turkish recruiters
would also find Greek sailors in the taverns of Pera on Cyprus. There were many
small- time Greek pirates in the islands of the Aegean and along the coasts of
the Adriatic, in search of small-time victims and whatever food could be stolen.
Although these fishermen-pirates could take from the sea, pirate rations were
usually a sack of flour, some biscuits, a skin of oil, honey, a few bunches of
garlic and onions, and a little salt. These rations would last a month, or until
the next raid or port.

Greek fishermen were truly sailors who found a home all over the
Mediterranean. Greek sailors could easily be found manning a Spanish, Turkish,
or pirate galley. The infamous brothers, the Barbarossas, were Greek or Turkish
sailors from Lesbos who converted to Islam and settled in Djerba, becoming
pirates who terrorized the western Mediterranean. By 1518, they ruled Algiers
until the last brother's death in 1546.